The Queen's Genetically Engineered Machine Team

With your contribution, our team of undergraduate students was able to successfully complete our project involving the engineering of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans. We were then able to present our project at the iGEM competition at MIT; where, we received a Gold medal for designing a functioning toolkit of DNA parts and protocols for the genetic engineering of C. elegans using the standard iGEM system of biological parts. If you would like to know more about the competition and the team, you can refer to the QGEM summary document attached to this letter.

This year’s team is building new applications upon last year’s foundational C. elegans project. We are engineering the worm’s olfactory nerves to detect and seek out harmful molecules in the environment. We intend to fuse receptor proteins from different organisms to the nematode’s sensory system, so it can detect and move towards novel molecules like polyaromatic hydrocarbons.

If you have any questions, or if you would just like to discuss the team, please feel free to email or call ­­­­­Steven Goldie, the team’s general manager, at steve.goldie@qgemteam.com, or 613-650-7754.